Explaining about a draft agreement on nuclear fuel for the Tehran research reactor, Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Manouchehr Mottaki noted: “The two sides decided to review the draft. It is being reviewed in Vienna, and Iran will soon declare its viewpoint.” However, some officials have already voiced their opposition to the recent nuclear […]
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Monthly Review Magazine
Brazil’s Differences with Washington Are Unavoidable, and Positive
Over the last decade an epoch-making political change has taken place in the Western Hemisphere: Latin America, a region that was once considered the United States’ “back yard,” is now more independent of Washington than Europe is. But while Latin America has changed, U.S. foreign policy has not — even now, with the election of […]
Recovery or Bubble?
Fears of a new speculative boom on which the global recovery rides are being expressed in different circles. There are as many aspects to these fears as there are to the so-called recovery, which include the huge profits being recorded by some major banking firms, the surge in capital flows to emerging markets, the speculative […]
Global Imbalances: Remarkable Reversal
An important feature of the global monetary regime of the last three decades is the imbalance in the distribution of current account balances across countries and country groupings. Recently, the most glaring discrepancy is the fact that a huge US balance of payments deficit is being substantially financed by developing countries and not largely by […]
Turning Activists into Voters in Uruguay: The Frente Amplio and José Mujica
Torrential rain didn’t keep voters away from the polls on Sunday, November 29th when José “Pepe” Mujica was elected president with 52% of the vote. The 74-year-old Agricultural Minister spent 14 years in jail for his participation in the Tupamaro guerilla movement and has pledged to continue the policies of his predecessor, current left-leaning president […]
Electoral Gore: Warlord Violence, Oligarchic Decay, and US Neocolonial Domination in the Philippines
The mass slaughter of 57 civilians in Maguindanao, the Philippines, on November 23 by a local warlord may seem a minor incident compared with the much more heinous destruction of whole villages in Afghanistan and Pakistan by US drones. In the Philippines, however, it acquires symbolic density by the resonance of contextual historic factors linked […]
Stronger Estate Tax Urged by United for a Fair Economy in Response to House Vote
Boston, MA, December 4, 2009 — “More tax breaks for the super wealthy is one of the last things our economy needs right now,” says Lee Farris, Estate Tax Policy Coordinator for United for a Fair Economy (UFE). “Back in 2001, the Bush Administration enacted a massive tax cut for multi-millionaires by gradually reducing the […]
Freeing the Truth: International Colloquium for the Cuban 5
Less than 100 miles from Guantanamo, 200 delegates from 54 nations and all seven continents converged in Holguín, Cuba between November 19-23rd. The occasion was the Fifth International Colloquium dedicated to five Cuban political prisoners who have been held for eleven years in prisons across the United States. I was one of the U.S. participants […]
Spread the Word! U.S. Should Not Recognize Sham Honduras Elections
The elections held in Honduras on November 29 were inherently flawed. Tens of thousands of troops and police officers manned polling stations and even distributed electoral literature. These forces have been responsible for killings, rapes, beatings, and detentions of people opposed to the coup. Media reports cited many people who said they did not […]
Barack Obama’s Myopic Iran Policy
By giving Israel veto rights and threatening more sanctions, the U.S. is squandering the best chance we have for a negotiated solution to the Iranian nuclear issue. Ordinarily, it would have been easy to dismiss the latest resolution of the International Atomic Energy Agency censuring Iran as a text, drafted by idiots, full of sound […]
Unemployment Edges Downward, as Employment Loss Slows
The unemployment rate fell back to 10.0 percent in November as the pace of job loss slowed to 11,000 for the month. Job loss for the prior two months was also revised downward by 159,000, bringing the average rate of job loss over the last three months to 87,000. The improved jobs picture in the […]
The Progressive Quandary About SEIU: A Tale of Two Letters to Andy Stern
Abstract: The terrain of “progressive labor” in the U.S. has shifted dramatically in recent years. The two-million member Service Employees International Union (SEIU) — long associated with the remaking of labor as a force for social justice — has become embroiled in a series of controversies that have alienated past campus, community, and political allies. […]
Honduras: An Election Validated by Blood and Repression
The new self-titled humanist president has been a key supporter of the regime through five months of massive human rights violations. “They’ve imposed a coup regime on us. They’ve assassinated at least 34 of our companions since the coup that removed the legitimate president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya Rosales. Nationwide, they’ve detained more than 5,000 […]
On Political Economy and Political Theory
Jean Paul Sartre in the fifties made the somber remark that things were so bad at the Sorbonne in the 1920s that the University did not even have a Chair in Marxism. In asserting the fact at that time, he was of course assuming that things at mid-century had changed dramatically and that Marxism […]
Of Islands and Their Sons
(For MAAS BOB, father of the Trade Union. And for Sam White who singlehandedly impregnated half of the women of Montserrat and so made beautiful cousins for me. Bless you and may you find peace.) My time is sunrise, dawns and mornings clean before the wickedness comes in. When I see the Montserrat sunrise I […]
An Open Letter from Economists in Support of Financial Transaction Taxes
December 3, 2009 To Whom It May Concern: A modest set of financial transaction taxes could raise a substantial amount of needed revenue while having little impact on trades that have a positive economic impact. The cost of trading financial assets has plummeted over the last three decades as a result of computerization. This has […]
Military Families Respond to Announcement of Increased Troop Deployments to Afghanistan
Military Families Speak Out, an organization of over 4,000 military families opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, issued the following statement in response to last night’s speech by President Obama regarding Afghanistan. President Obama’s decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan by deploying another 30,000 troops has sent the message to military families […]
Native Orientalists at the Daily Times
“The more a ruling class is able to assimilate the foremost minds of the ruled class, the more stable and dangerous becomes its rule.” — Karl Marx A few days back, I received a ‘Dear friends’ email from Mr. Najam Sethi, ex editor-in-chief of Daily Times, Pakistan, announcing that he, together with several of his […]
West Point March and Rally Protests Obama’s War Plan
Over 300 antiwar protesters took part in a demonstration at the gates to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point Dec. 1 as President Barack Obama sought to justify his decision to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Facing police and soldiers at the Highland Falls gate to the Academy, demonstrators repeatedly chanted, “30,000 more! […]
The Swiss and the Muslims
The Swiss, known for cheese, Alps, watches, chocolate, and secret bank accounts, at least two of which are full of holes, have now added a sixth important product: intolerance. 57.5 percent of its 8 million population, or of those who went to the polls, voted to forbid minarets next to Muslim mosques. As nearly everyone […]
